Government Agencies

At CNN, it's not unusual to see one conservative or center-right guest in a panel discussion stacked with leftists, including the host. That's bad enough, but there has clearly been an increase in the number of times the lone conservative or center-right guest also ends up on the receiving end of rude, abusive treatment one would never see directed at other panelists. Such was the case Thursday evening, when conservative talk radio host and CNN political commentator Ben Ferguson was shouted down and cut off by host Don Lemon.

Charges that the Obama administration's FBI and Justice Department may have actively worked to prevent Donald Trump's election have really gotten under CNN's thin skin. On Wednesday, the network took out its frustrations on Ohio Republican Congressman Jim Jordan, both in John Berman's hostile interview and in the one-sided panel discussion which followed.

On Wednesday, CNN legal analyst Paul Callan came to the defense of those questioning the FBI’s and Department of Justice’s objectivity regarding the investigations of Trump officials and Hillary Clinton.

On Tuesday’s MSNBC Live with Katy Tur, Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) expressed her “concern” that the President “is systematically trying to shut down every possible branch of government but the Presidency.” Of course, Tur provided no challenge.

How do you get the liberals at the New York Times to embrace America’s internal surveillance agencies? Get President Trump and Republicans to criticize them. Saturday’s off-lead story by Adam Goldman and Maggie Haberman, “Hurdle Facing F.B.I. Chief? The President – Politics hard to Avoid as Trump Weighs In.” The jump-page headline: “F.B.I. Director Wants To Move Agency Ahead, But Trump is in the Way.” The text box: “Constant criticisms have damaged morale at the bureau.” That’s pretty bold, since it’s pretty much the paper’s raison d’etre to demoralize U.S. intelligence agencies by printing leaked classified documents, from the Pentagon Papers to the exposure of a legal terrorist-fighting banking surveillance program, SWIFT, to WikiLeaks. Yet the Times was undaunted in blaming Republicans for somehow demoralizing the powerful federal law and security agency.

With the investigation into the cause of the deadly Amtrak train derailment in Tacoma, Washington still ongoing, on Tuesday CBS Evening News placed the blame on the Trump administration claiming they were the ones putting off the implementation of the proper safety regulations. Their accusations came amid reports that both the train and the track were equipped with the required positive train control system (PTC), but they weren’t activated.

In a demonstration of their unwavering devotion to the former president on Monday, all three of the major network news outlets (ABC, CBS, and NBC), and the Spanish-language networks (Univision and Telemundo), had a blackout on the revelations uncovered by Politico: The Obama administration sabotaged efforts to damage the financial operations of the Hezbollah terrorist group all so he could have his precious Iran nuclear deal.

On Thursday, MSNBC's Ali Velshi interviewed former FCC commissioner Robert McDowell about that agency's move to eliminate the Obama administration's "Open Internet Order," better known as its "net neutrality" regulations. Velshi was in over his head, and as people who find themselves in such a situation often do, he resorted to hostility, bluster, and an accusation of condescension to try to make up for his repeated attempts to make a tired little-guy-versus-big-guy argument against the FCC's action.

USA Today reporter Paul Davidson apparently doesn't understand that policies which help workers get hired and keep their jobs are more "worker-friendly" than those designed to line trial lawyers' pockets and help labor unions coerce companies into dealing with them. At least twice this year, Davidson, in his headlines and his content, has characterized moves by the federal government's National Labor Relations Board which have restored predictable economic order as "overturning" Obama-era regulations which were supposedly "worker-friendly," but really weren't.

Celebrities, comedians and left-wing media outlets lashed out at the Federal Communications Commission for reversing positions on “net neutrality,” a regulation imposed on internet providers during the Obama administration.

“GO FCC YOURSELF,” proclaimed the front page of HuffPost on Dec. 14, with a photo of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. That was also the name of the website shortcut liberal comic John Oliver has been promoting for months to get opponents to comment against repeal. Yahoo News reported that some Twitter users even urged FCC chairman Ajit Pai to go kill himself for voting against net neutrality.

As of Wednesday evening, as Nicholas Fondacaro at NewsBusters observed, the Big Three broadcasting networks were not reporting the content of the most damning text messages exchanged between now-former Robert Mueller investigative team members Peter Strzok and his mistress Lisa Page. Meanwhile, coverage seen Wednesday evening at the Associated Press predictably treated the matter as a Republicans-attack dispute. Almost no one seems to be interested in hearing from what other veteran or former FBI officials think about the Mueller team's and Bureau leadership's conduct. One exception is Elizabeth MacDonald at the Fox Business network, who interviewed former FBI Assistant Director Jim Kallstrom on Thursday's Risk and Reward show.

Last week, Wisconsin's Attorney General issued a report recommending contempt charges against six former workers at the state's now-defunct Government Accountability Board and three employees in the Milwaukee County prosecutor's office for their involvement in or knowledge of illegal and criminal leaks of GAB documents relating to what has become known as the "John Doe" investigation of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. The Associated Press's Scott Bauer, whose animosity towards Walker and Republicans has been obvious for least seven years, has been busy downplaying the matter as just another "partisan" dispute while making false claims about the nature of the investigation and the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling which halted it.

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